This was going to be a rant. Then I thought about it, which was a mistake. As any experienced ranter can tell you, thinking about it has the unfortunate tendency of turning a good, clean rant into a muddy quagmire of fine points, conditional sentences, and digressions as delicately balanced as a Swiss watch.

You want to flambé the target of your ire, but you find yourself conscience-bound to admit: maybe your target has a point. Such was the case last week when California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law legalizing self-driving cars in the Golden State. California joins Nevada in allowing Google and other manufacturers to test “autonomous” cars on its roads. The law in both states requires that a human driver be onboard to take over in the event of emergency but the cars, which use a combination of sensors, cameras and artificial intelligence to stay between the lines, apparently don’t need the help.